1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to pressure sensitive adhesive labels and means for marking a plurality of items therewith.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When a number of different items are to be processed, as for example, patient serum samples in a clinical analytical laboratory, aliquots of samples and standards are often transferred to secondary containers or test tubes for further processing. These may be small plastic cups for automatic analyzers, antibody coated plastic tubes, or ordinary glass test tubes. In order to identify the final result with a particular specimen, the secondary containers are usually marked in some fashion. A worksheet is usually prepared listing the identity of all samples. An accession number or other indicia may be marked beside each entry on the worksheet and the identity or corresponding indicia may also be marked on the respective secondary container by marking means. Marking means is often a marking pen or wax pencil which is awkward to apply legibly to a round surface and easily wiped off the polyolefin tubes sometimes used. Pressure sensitive adhesive labels are also used according to the prior art, but these are time consuming since they must be peeled off their support one at a time and individually applied to the item to be marked. Prenumbered containers may also be used, but they require sorting.